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Kim to Helm Dartmouth

Dartmouth has tapped Jim Yong Kim, a leader in global health, to become its next president. Kim, 49, currently heads the department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, where he earlier received an MD and a PhD in medical anthropology. He co-founded Partners in Health with Harvard classmate Paul Farmer, and then went on to head the HIV/AIDS program at the World Health Organization in 2004-2005.

Kim "has shown how what you learn in the classroom can serve society and benefit mankind to the fullest," says Michael Merson, Global Health Institute at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina and a former head of WHO's Global Programme on AIDS.

Until recently, many expected the Obama administration to offer Kim a top slot, such as the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, which has yet to be filled. Kim, who was born in Seoul, Korea, will be the first Asian-American president of an Ivy League school. He also will be the first the member of that rarified club to have played a prominent, hands-on role in global health efforts, which ultimately may have the most impact on his stewardship. He takes over on 1 July.